Aims

The aim of free-speaking activities and lessons is to activate language that

students have been taught and to give them practice in using language freely and
spontaneously

Planning a speaking lesson - the three Ts

When planning a speaking lesson there are 'three Ts' to think about: topic, task
and tools.

Topic - what they will talk about? You need to choose something that is interesting
and relevant to your students.

Task - what activity will you use to get them to talk about the topic? You need to
think of a suitable activity within which the topic can be dealt with.

Tools - what language do they need to talk about this topic? Even if your students
are interested in current affairs, if they are very low level they simply would not
have enough language to be able to do something like have a debate about
immigration.

Here are some ideas for activities and games that you could use in speaking
lessons. You have probably thought of some other possibilities in addition to
these.
Click on an item to find out more about it, or just go through the list in order.

1. Problem-solving
2. Ranking activities
3. Role plays and simulations
4. Discussions
5. Debates
6. Balloon debates
7. Student talks/presentations
8. Describing pictures
9. Information gap
10. Storytelling activities
11. Instructions

Problem-solving
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This could be any type of problem:

1. Working out the answer to a logic or lateral thinking problem
2. Solving a practical problem such as what would be the best way to organise the
new library? How can I deal with my very grumpy and unreasonable neighbours?
3. There are elaborate problem solving games for language practice, which are known
as mazes. See for example, The British Council's Holiday Maze.

Ranking activities
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Any discussion activity which involves putting items in order of importance. For
example, you could give students a list of professions and ask them which ones are
most important to society. Or you could give them a list of items that might be
taken to a desert island and ask them to choose the five most useful. Students
need to explain the reasons for their choices.
Role plays and simulations

We looked at role plays in our section on functional language. Simulations are more
elaborate role plays which involve the whole class in a discussion or task. For
example, you might set the scenario of developers who want to build a new housing
estate in a country village. The parish council is holding a meeting to discuss the
proposals. Students would be allocated different roles such as local residents,
councillors, builders, developers, etc., all of whom have their own views on
whether or not the project should be allowed to go ahead

Discussions

For intermediate level students you can organise discussions in groups or as a

class on a range of topics such as music, places to visit, films, sport etc.
according to your students' interests. You must ensure learners are familiar with
the vocabulary and functional language they will need (tools) in order to take an
active part in a class discussion.

Debates

For more advanced classes you could set up a formal debate with students arguing
for opposing viewpoints.

These take a lot of preparation and you need to choose a topic which will genuinely
interest and engage the whole class.

Balloon debates

Students work in small groups, each one takes on the identity of a famous person.
They are in a hot air balloon which cannot carry all of them. One person must be
sacrificed so the others can be saved. Each student has to argue why he/she should
not have to jump out, then the group votes on who has to go.

Student talks/presentations

These can be prepared for homework. You might get two or three students a week to
give a presentation across the whole term. Make sure they do not last too long
(they can be boring!).
Make it absolutely clear that students are not allowed to prepare a written script
which they then just read aloud.

Describing pictures
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This is a good speaking activity for students who are reluctant to get involved in
discussion-type activities. Students have to describe photographs, paintings or
cartoon pictures.
They could speculate about the situation depicted, express their opinion, guess
which one of a number of different pictures their partner is describing, and so
on.

Information gap
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Information gap activities encourage learners to work together.

One learner holds a piece of information that the other learner needs in order to
complete a task.

You can for example divide up the clues in a logic problem, so that learners have
to share the information they have in order to solve the problem.

Storytelling activities
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Again, good for students who do not feel comfortable with expressing opinions. The
teacher can give them a list of words and also pictures, from which they have to
tell a story.

Or students could tell personal stories about experiences they have had, for
example, 'Have you ever had an accident? Tell your partner/the others in your group
about your accident'.

instructions
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This can be a good pair activity, where learners have to give each other specific
instructions in order to complete an activity or task.

Here are the key points for a teacher facilitating students in speaking activities:

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1. Although it can be quite tempting to give your own opinions, you should avoid
this, especially on controversial issues, as it can be quite off-putting for
students to find that you have very different opinions from their own - as far as
possible you should remain fairly neutral.

2. Only express disagreement/disapproval of students' opinions if someone says

something very offensive that is likely to upset other members of the group.

3. Because the aim is fluency, you should not risk distracting students from their
attempts to communicate their ideas by correcting their pronunciation or grammar
while they are talking, unless it is so inaccurate that nobody else can understand
them.
However, the procedure shown on the next few slides will work well for many
speaking lessons.

Stage 1 - Introduce the topic (T1)

Stage 2 - Present the tools i.e. language needed (T3)

Stage 3 - Provide drilling and other controlled practice

Stage 4 - Set the task (T2), and give students time to prepare

Stage 5 - Do the activity

Stage 6 - Feedback and correction spot

Stage 1
Introduce the topic that is going to be used for the speaking activity.

This is the warmer/lead-in to the lesson. You need to get students fully engaged
and motivated at this point to ensure the lesson is successful

Stage 2
Pre-teach any vocabulary and/or functional language students will need for the
task.

Stage 3
Drill the language you have introduced for pronunciation and to help students
memorise it.

You should provide some other controlled practice activities after the drilling.

Stage 4
Set the task.
In pairs/ small groups students prepare what they are going to say (e.g. for a
debate, role play or simulation), or discuss the first part of the speaking task
(e.g. for a pyramid discussion). This means thinking about what they want to say -
they should not write a text to read aloud.

Stage 5
Students do the main activity in larger groups or as a whole class (e.g. the
simulation, debate or agreeing a final conclusion to a problem).

The teacher monitors and takes notes, offering support if necessary, but mainly not
participating or intruding.

Stage 6
Teacher gives feedback on how well they did the task, and a correction spot.

Find some things to praise in this stage, so that people are aware of the progress
they are making. This motivates learners more effectively than just pointing out
all their mistakes.

Remember the 'sandwich method.'